Since the beginning of the project in April 2012, our lab has screened a wide array of plant essential oils for baseline toxicity and in combination with various synthetic pyrethroids against Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, and Anopheles gambiae, the African malaria mosquito. To date, we have identified essential oil candidates that enhance the toxicity of various synthetic pyrethroids, and some that cause greater enhancement than the most commonly used commercial synergist in synthetic pyrethroid formulations, piperonyl butoxide (PBO).

It is well established that insects and plants have shared a long evolutionary history with one another. Due to this evolutionary “arms race,” plants have developed some truly fascinating ways to deter insects from feeding upon them, such as production of various terpenoid compounds that repel or kill insect pests. Our lab is interested in isolating plant-derived compounds that may act as natural repellents.

Octopamine and tyramine are essential biogenic amines that have been implicated in numerous physiological systems in arthropod species, such as reproduction, the nervous system, and learning-and-memory, to name a few. We have successfully created two stably-transfected Chinese Hamster Ovary cell lines (CHO) with a functional octopamine receptor from Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach, and a functional tyramine receptor from Rhipicephalus microplus, the southern cattle tick.

We perform various bioassay tests for various companies and agencies to quantify the ability of new insecticidal formulations to kill and repel a wide array of arthropod pest species. Some of the species we utilize in our testing includes, but is not limited too: house flies, cockroaches, ticks, bed bugs, mosquitoes, fleas, crickets, corn rootworms, corn borers, cutworms, aphids, and spider mites. The fees for service, as well as the types of testing to be performed, are negotiated via a contract basis.